This invention relates to clinical techniques for the infant nursery and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for determining an infant's capability to orally take nourishment by sucking.
An important determination that must be made for newborn infants, and especially premature newborns, is the capability of the infant to accept liquid nourishment orally from a nipple. An infant who has insufficient capability to receive nourishment orally, and who is given a feeding bottle before this capability develops, is in danger of regurgitation and aspiration, events which could lead to "milk aspiration" pneumonia and death. Accordingly, doctors and nurses tend to be relatively conservative in appraising the infant's capability to take nourishment orally. Initial feedings of low-risk newborns are commonly delayed for 12 hours or more and occasionally for 24 hours or more. High-risk infants are commonly fed by routes which circumvent the need to suck and swallow. Such routes include intravenous, nasogastric, or nasojejunal infusion. These feeding modes are not without complication and are also recognized to be less adequate than sucking milk from a nipple, but the claim is they are safer. Also, applicant has noted that the absence of normal feeding can have a degenerative effect since the infant who is fed intravenously or by tube has little opportunity to develop the muscles and coordination needed to improve sucking and swallowing capabilities.
The determination of the infant's ability to accept nourishment orally is generally made on the basis of a relatively large number of inputs pertaining to the infant's overall condition. Since there are no systematic criteria for such determinations, a degree of guesswork is typically employed and there is little confidence that a correct decision has been made.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved and consistent technique for determination of a newborn infant's ability to take oral nourishment safely.